Research Proposal

Mansha Maheshwari
Independent Research GT
2017-2018

Research Title: ​Headaches, Back Pain, and Tension: Physical Effects of Anxiety and
Depression

Overview of Research
● The research topic is how anxiety and depression play a huge role in the physical effects
an affected person would feel. On a broader aspect, the topic focuses on how mental
illness can lead to severe body pain. Disorders such as depression and anxiety can be very
mind tolling and therefore people seem to remain ignorant to the physical effects a patient
might be feeling and focus just on the mental aspect. This is a problem that needs to be
solved and more awareness needs to be harboured to help patients with such disorders.
The linkage between a person with depression and anxiety is the stress hormones that are
produced. Those stress hormones then impact the body by causing unbearable body
pains. Through this research, it will be investigated how physical symptoms can actually
be more dangerous than mental and how they are overlooked.

Background and History of the Issue

Every year about 42.5 million Americans go through some sort of a mental illness.
Anxiety is a dangerous condition which hard to overcome because it causes many problems such
as anxiety disorders and chronic medical conditions. Anxiety is described as a reaction to the
tension that has mental and physical features which affect daily life. Although this anxiety or
flight or fight response could help the body be alert, it has negative symptoms such as nausea,
diarrhea, frequent urination, as well as chronic conditions, like the irritable bowel syndrome.
Depression is a mental condition, but it still affects a person physically by fatigue, weakened
immune system, increased pain sensitivity, and weight fluctuations. Some symptoms of
depression include sadness, grief, guilt, and feeling empty or hopeless most of the time. Being
depressed can make someone lose appetite or gain more appetite which can lead to binge eating
and or obesity.
Having depression and anxiety causes a strong correlation to stress as stress causes high
blood pressure which can lead to heart disease. In America, about 3.3 million Americans ages 18
and older go through depression. According to Joseph Coyle, depression is the deficiency of
some neurotransmitters which are chemical messengers at different points. A test was conducted
that further supported the chemical imbalance theory. It displayed how some drugs increase and
decrease mood in humans so it still remains a theory as chemical balance in the brain can not be
measured but explains the physical symptoms of a person experiencing depression.
Problem Statement and Rationale
The physical effects of depression and anxiety are important because these two
conditions are becoming so common among youth and adults. Many people have either
experienced depression/anxiety or at least talked about anxiety or depression. These disorders
have become so common throughout the world that it is very common to see at least one post or
hear one comment about this topic throughout the day. Everyday the issue becomes worse and
spreads like an epidemic throughout the globe and it is fascinating because the physical effects of
anxiety/depression have a strong correlation. Therefore, it is important to further explore the
physical symptoms and understand the relation between the two different conditions and the
effects it has on a human being.

Research Methodology

● Research Question and Hypothesis

○ What is the mental and physical impact of depression and anxiety to the body?
○ The physical impacts of depression and anxiety can result in the outpouring of
stress hormones and cause multiple physical consequences affecting the lifestyle
of an affected person.

● Basis of Hypothesis
○ I focused my hypothesis on the physical impacts of depression and anxiety
because in multiple ways these two conditions are very similar. I was interested in
this topic because it has been a very common issue among people . I chose the
physical aspect over mental to portray what the people experiencing
depression/anxiety feel and how these disorders can be interconnected. Many
males and females undergo problems and conditions due to the stress that is
caused which triggers multiple physical responses and that is heavily focused on
for my hypothesis as well. My research so far supported the original hypothesis
and continues to add to how these conditions are formulated and how they
physical effects can impact a person.

● Research Design
○ I will be conducting causal-comparative research. I plan to interview medical
physicians and possibly psychologists. My research will be a combination of
qualitative from the research articles and quantitative data from interviews from
doctors and patients who have had depression/anxiety versus those who have
experienced it in their past. In order to do that, after interviewing them, I will
compare the symptoms those particular patients had to go through to evaluate the
correlation between anxiety and depression.
 ● Operational Definitions
○ Flight or Fight Response​: This refers to anxiety and how a human mind signals
the body to react to either a harmful, threat to survival, or a stressful situation.
This mostly occurs in anxiety has most anxiety disorders are associated with this
response and how they trigger physical symptoms.
○ Irritable Bowel Syndrome:​ This is an intestinal disorder which causes stomach
pain and abnormal colon contractions. This is a common symptom of conditions
like anxiety and depression where the patient is under so much stress that body
exerts pressure and triggers physical responses like this.
○ Weight Fluctuations:​ This is when the physical symptoms occur in disorders such
as anxiety or depression where the weight of the patient increases due to multiple
factors such as: slower metabolism, change in body shape, and fat accumulation.

Product Overview
● The product of the research will result in a presentation to a group of people who have
less knowledge in how mental illnesses affect a person. The plan is to find a hospital or
public place with people such as doctors, patients, and patients families to hear more
about mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
● It will explain how painstakingly hard it is for people who undergo through disorders
such as anxiety and depression to act and perform daily tasks. The audience can take part
and evaluate the product by participating in it. Since the product is a presentation, it will
be very interactive and many questions will arise from the audience which will make
them evaluate the product and research topic in general. It will be a presentation which
will contain all the findings and the final result for the research question and hypothesis.
It will have a limit on the number of people it is presented to since a small audience will
be better for a interactive presentation of the outcomes.

Logistical Considerations
● Some challenges that will be like finding a venue for the presentation, an interactive
audience, and resources such as projectors to project the presentation. A venue for the
presentation could be a hospital or a public area such as a library. The audience would be
quite interested by the presentation and aspects that follow which will help to make them
participle. Resources such as projectors, chairs, and materials such as flyers for the
presentation can be handled through the school or at a library. Asking the principal for
special permission for the presentation and a specified date would be substantial.
Emailing for permission to present at a hospital or a physcology ward to present it to the
right audience.

Student Signature: _____________________________ Date:____________________________

G/T Resource Teacher Signature: ________________________Date:______________________